Thoughts on our time at the beginning of the Covid Generation

Following a request, I shared a list of ideas for conversations to write about in an online blog.  Surprisingly, one of the more abstract items on the list was selected, one I have put much thought, study and application into over the past nearly 30 years working with students.  What motivates us to learn?”  

Before diving into that question,... I think our about with a pandemic in our world has made an obvious impact and is affecting many changes in how we do education.  But, the changes in education have been happening for quite awhile.  

Amazingly, a group of awesome individuals have been back building in recent years to develop supports for this moment in history when remote learning has received immediate recognition.  They have stretched, changed, asked to do many things past their pay grade to create tools and create online structures which help us navigate forward with the youth of our nation: Educators.

I often share with other adults, “Remember what school was like for you, and how it was like to be in a classroom when you went through your k-12 experience?  Realize your experience is dated - in most schools it’s a new experience, and education is still changing, becoming more different.”  Some adults, who have taken courses and experienced online learning management learning platforms, like Blackboard, may have a better grasp on the online component.  But.. In the k-12 experience, we are comparing the “ipod” to the “iphone.”  Teachers use Canvas, Seesaw, Google schools… Efforts like reading across the curriculum, integrated instruction, professional learning communities, argument driven instruction, coding, pathways, integrated in new experiences with electronic devices,... it’s a new and changing educational world.  When you meet an active teacher who has survived the first half-dozen years of teaching, and are current in their approach, you are meeting an extraordinary person.

I have also often heard about this “cycle of education.”  Wait long enough, and what educators did 30 years ago will become the new fad.  Early in my teaching career, I enjoyed conversations with the oldest and most experienced.  They talked about their experiences during the space race, the lack of engineers, and the efforts to make science hands-on and applicable to real life.  Programs were in the works to connect students to the workplace, and tech education and career components.  Okay, that does sound a bit like the last 20 years, 10 years,.. 5 years.  Yet, with each lap, those of us who have learned from the lessons before us are able to help push the effort upwards.  

My encouragement is we do not experience “The wheel in the sky,”  Steve Perry sang about (lead singer of the band Journey) in the 70’s.  We don’t end up exactly where we started in each effort.  Rather education is a spiral staircase.  From my experiences, the staircase generally moves upwards but occasionally downwards.  In light of the technology, remote instruction and all of the challenges it presents, it will pay to be vigilant about what decisions we make, as we reflect on this experience.  Which are the changes to carry us upwards, and what have we gained or lost in the process.

This future ahead lies with unknown and opportunity.  Yet, we are making our way through the crisis, and hopefully, learning.  We have tools.  Individuals like Sal Khan have been preparing us for this for years with Khan Academy.  EdPuzzles, Quizzies, Kahoots, and many other online supports have provided a way for teachers to replace the standard paper worksheet and quiz, with fun, dynamic tools which provide immediate feedback to students.  They are engaging (if not overused), gamified, challenging, adaptable,... and for teachers - remove much of the grading load to allow times for other efforts.  They are game changers.

Yet, for those teachers most prepared for our new normal, I believe they are realizing the real missing piece of education.  They may have the digital down to an art and enjoy the zoom and hangout meetings.  They are implementing their online curriculum, well established in an online educational platform.  But, there is a necessary part that has not changed, and is really the most essential.  The most valuable.  The most impacting.  The in person time with students.

We are adapting to the COVID generation.  

To my colleagues: keep up the good fight, and help us navigate forward.

To my fellow parents: you have the most important part of the equation - time with your kids.

So, next time, I promise to write about the “why’s” of learning.  God bless us all as we continue to learn forward.

-John